


Second Chance for Love: Interlude

by DavidFalkayn



Series: Second Chance For Love [2]
Category: Daria - Fandom, Star Trek
Genre: Crossover, F/F, F/M, Star Trek - Freeform, daria - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-20 06:26:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16131530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DavidFalkayn/pseuds/DavidFalkayn
Summary: This is a brief story about what was going on in the Star Trek universe during the events of Second Chance for Love.





	Second Chance for Love: Interlude

**Author's Note:**

> This story contains a lot of original characters that are part of my Star Trek: Sutherland and other United Trek stories.

_**Bajor—The Fire Caves Stardate -55705.01 April 2267** _

Lieutenant Bateson, the Lexington’s navigator, was the first who rushed into the cavern. Scanning the area with his eyes, he saw an altar with two Bajoran orbs on either side of it and a red gem set within a circle supported by arms coming from the altar. On the altar, he saw a bloody knife. Looking down, he saw Lieutenant Sito slumped against the altar with Aliz and the Commodore on either side of her. He gasped as he saw a vortex swirling above the pits, a dull red beam of light emanating from the gem seemed targeted at the vortex. Hearing a low moan from the young Bajoran, he shouted, “Over here! We need a doctor!”

The others dashed into the cavern, phasers drawn. Seeing the figures slumped on the ground with the young lieutenant kneeling down next to them, Doctors McCoy and Murakawa rushed up to the unconscious figures. Taking out their medical tricorders, both doctors scanned their patients. “Two ccs of cortrazine should get them up and about.”

“Right.” Dr. Murakawa responded as she further reported, “No sign of the pah-wraith in any of them.” The Sutherland CMO then placed a hypospray against the neck of Lieutenant Sito and injected her with the medicine just as her Enterprise counterpart did the same with Lieutenant Bathory and Commodore Wesley.

“They should be regaining consciousness shortly.” Dr. McCoy declared. Then looking about, he exclaimed in a worried voice, “Where is Captain Shelby?”

“She wasn’t here when I got here.” Lieutenant Bateson responded in a worried tone. He then noticed the blood on the altar and the knife. “You don’t think…”

Dr. Murakawa quickly ran her tricorder over the blood and dagger. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and exhaled, “That’s the Captain’s blood.”

“Check for a blood trail.” Commander Sam Lavelle, the dark-haired young first officer of the _Sutherland_ ordered as he entered the chamber accompanied by two other officers, Mr. Spock, the science officer for the _Enterprise_ , and Lieutenant Commander Talana Zha’Thara, the Andorian science officer of the _Lexington_ , now wearing the same uniform worn by the _Sutherland_ officers due to her recent reassignment to the 24th century starship.

“It leads to the vortex.” Talana reported as she took a reading of the swirling maelstrom with her tricorder. “Mr. Spock?” She shouted, calling out to the half-Vulcan science officer, “I need you to verify these readings. Are you picking up the same thing I am?”

Approaching and taking out his tricorder, the Enterprise science officer’s eyebrow rose as he remarked, “Fascinating.”

“What is it?” Commander Lavelle, his voice etched with concern for his captain, demanded as he approached the two science officers.

“These readings would indicated that the vortex is a phase transition.” Mr. Spock reported as Talana nodded her head in agreement.

“Okay…” Sam nodded his head, “It’s been a while since I took cosmology at the Academy…refresh me.”

“It’s a bubble created at the quantum-level.” Mr. Spock lectured, “To put it simply, the particles change within it resulting in a change in the laws of physics. That bubble will expand until it destroys this universe, replacing it with a new universe. It appears that the entity that possessed Lieutenant Bathory found a way through the use of the Bajoran orbs in combination with the other artifacts to extend that phase transition to multiple universes, placing the entire multiverse in danger.”

“So you’re saying that vortex…” Sam began and then trailed off, his thought smoothly picked up by the Andorian science officer.

“Will eventually expand and consume this universe and countless others unless we find some way to stop it.”

“Ideas?” Commander Lavelle inquired.

The soft moan coming from Lieutenant Bathory immediately attracted everyone’s attention as she and Commodore Wesley struggled to consciousness. “Our lanyunoka Robert—where is she?”

Clearing his head as both he and the pixie-like auburn-haired lieutenant next to him were helped to their feet, the commodore croaked out a reply, “I…don’t know. The last thing I remember was…”

“That thing inside me.” Aliz sobbed, “It took possession of Lieutenant Sito…”

“It tried to force me to kill you and Commodore Wesley and then Captain Shelby…” The young Bajoran security officer explained in a weak voice as she struggled to her feet.

“Why did it need you to kill them, Jaxa?” Sam asked as he looked down with compassion at his old friend

“Because of the others in my head.” Sito lowered her head as she remembered her time in hell while held as a prisoner of the Cardassians. “It made it easier for it to manipulate me. All it had to do was wake up the Huntress and that personality took over.”

“What happened?” Sam further inquired.

“Captain Shelby managed to get free of her bonds and took the dagger from me.” Sito related, “She then yanked the amulet from Lieutenant Bathory’s neck and sliced her hand. She then dropped her blood on the amulet and altar and threw it into the vortex and then jumped in after it.”

“Why?”

“Commander?” Talana gently interrupted, “May I?”

“Go ahead, ‘Lana.” Sam nodded his head, signaling for her to proceed.

“First…I need to see if a hunch of mine is right.” She said as she took out her tricorder and reset it. The Andorian science officer then took readings of Captain Shelby’s blood on the altar and the dagger. She then addressed her old _Lexington_ commanding officer and her friend, “Commodore…Aliz…can I take some blood samples from you?”

“Why do you need our blood, Talana?” Robert asked, his curiosity aroused.

“If I’m right…” Talana declared, “What’s inside your blood might be the key to fixing this problem.”

“Mr. Spock?” Commander Lavelle inquired.

“If I am correctly following Commander Zha’Thara’s logic…” the _Enterprise_ science officer conjectured, “…then she might well be correct.”

“All right.” Commodore Wesley rolled up his sleeve as Dr. McCoy took a sample while Aliz did the same thing for Dr. Murakawa.

Receiving the samples from the doctors, Talana and Spock ran their analyses, double-checking each other’s results as they proceeded. Nodding their heads in satisfaction at their results, the Andorian science officer reported, “I think we’ve got it. When the pah-wraith originally possessed Aliz’s ancestor back in the sixteenth century, it affected her blood chemistry at the quantum level. That trait was passed on to succeeding generations of Bathorys, but only within the female line. No male Bathory possesses that quantum signature.”

“And the amulet?”

“The material used to forge the amulet back in the early seventeenth century, after the death of the original Blood Countess, came from the meteor that crashed on Earth back then—the same material used by the Prophets to contain the pah-wraith when it was expelled from the wormhole thousands of years ago.” Talana replied, answering the commodore’s question.

“It, along with Lieutenant Bathory’s unique blood chemistry, served as a makeshift prison for the pah-wraith preventing it from possessing its wearer.” Mr. Spock declared, picking up the narrative.

“And when Aliz removed the medallion…” Commodore Wesley nodded his head as he put the pieces together.

“That, in combination with the _Lexington’s_ location near the Betreka Nebula and the chroniton particles in Aliz’s blood permitted the pah-wraith to break free of its prison and possess the Lieutenant.” Mr. Spock concluded.

“All right…” The commodore, now fully aware as he smoothly took command of the situation, further summarized and then inquired, “The entity possessed Aliz because of the quantum signature in her blood and used Lieutenant Sito because of her vulnerability, in order to set in motion its plans to carry out a phase transition. But why does it want to destroy not only this universe, but multiple other universes? And why did it need me and Captain Shelby?”

“The destruction of the universes is only the means to an end.” Mr. Spock surmised. “Its goal was basically to become…”

“God.” Aliz declared. “I still remember some of its thoughts while it possessed me. It was angry. Angry at the Prophets for expelling it and insane because of the thousands of years it had spent imprisoned in isolation. It wanted to create a new multiverse where all life would worship it. Where it would reign without challenge...where there would be nothing but chaos.”

“The ultimate megalomaniac.” Dr. McCoy shook his head.

“Correct, Doctor.” Mr. Spock nodded his head in agreement.

“But why did it need Robert and our Elizaveta?” Aliz repeated Wesley’s earlier question, the young Hungarian helmsman’s worry and fear for her granddaughter etching her voice as she spoke.

“While Commodore Wesley’s blood does not possess quite the same quantum signature as Aliz’s…” Talana explained, “…it does possess certain quantum energies in the form of chroniton particles that were excited as a result of what happened…”

“Back on the surface of that planet!” Commodore Wesley exclaimed as he recalled the Lexington’s first mission. “When those aliens experimented on us, one of the things they did was show us our futures…”

“But they erased our memories of what we saw, Robert.” Aliz said as she gazed into the eyes of the commanding officer who had slowly become even more to her.

“While they erased your memories, Aliz…” Talana clarified, “…The quantum energy already in your blood and the chroniton particles you picked up remained. The tricorders and instruments we use currently are not capable of detecting those changes so Dr. Vincent never picked up on it. But the increased sensitivity and detection abilities of 24th century instruments allow us to pick up on those particles now.”

“And Captain Shelby also possesses both the quantum signature that Aliz has because she’s our granddaughter….” Robert nodded his head as the picture became clearer.

“And she picked up chroniton energy thanks to the chroniton wave that brought her and the _Seine_ to the 23rd century.” Talana declared, further elaborating, “The pah-wraith needed all of your energy combined with its own to fully implement the phase transition the way it wanted it to proceed. But when Captain Shelby used her blood and then dove into the vortex…”

“She subverted the pah-wraith’s plans.” Mr. Spock continued, picking up from where his fellow science officer left off. Pausing for a moment, he nodded his head, “Of course. It should be feasible.’

“What?” Commander Lavelle interjected.

“Commander Zha’Thara…” Mr. Spock proposed, “We should be able to configure our tricorders and tap into the energy from the vortex and the energy beam feeding it to create a window into the other universes. Do you concur?”

Running the calculations given to her by the Vulcan science officer through her tricorder, Talana nodded her head, “Yeah. It should work.”

“Do it.” Commodore Wesley commanded as the two officers put their plan in motion. Moments later, a series of images appeared where the vortex was.

“This is like the Guardian.” Dr. McCoy declared, recalling the Guardian of Forever.

“Correct, Dr. McCoy.” Mr. Spock affirmed, “In the same manner the Guardian served as a portal to different times, the vortex is a portal to other universes.” He then raised an eyebrow, “Fascinating. Do you see what I see, Commander Zha’Thara?”

“I think I do.” Talana replied, her antennae twitching with excitement. “See the images of Captain Shelby appearing in the different universes?”

“Yeah.” Sam nodded his head as he recognized his captain in a variety of different universes. In each universe she was different though. In some universes young…others old. In some a starship captain…in others a dancer or a mercenary or a scientist or a housewife or a prostitute. “Why is she so different in each universe though?”

“Basically, when she plunged into the vortex, the forces of the phase transition scattered her quantum energy—what Vulcans would call her katra, what you humans would call her soul—into each of the different universes.” Mr. Spock explained.

“There’s something else…” Talana exclaimed, pointing at the images appearing in the vortex. “Don’t you see? Wherever you see her, the images are more stable…”

“Her quantum energy is acting as a stabilizing influence.” Mr. Spock surmised, further explaining, “To put it quite simply, her presence in these different universes is temporarily containing the phase transition.”

“Like the Dutch boy sticking his finger in the dike.” Commander Lavelle nodded his head in understanding.

“A simple…yet accurate analogy.” Mr. Spock nodded in agreement. “However…her quantum energy will not be able to restrain the phase transition for long. Eventually all of the universes…including this one…will destabilize as the transition consumes the multiverse. The rupture must be permanently sealed.

“I can seal it, Robert.” Aliz declared in a soft voice. “The particles in my blood will close the rupture.”

“No, Aliz…” The commodore shook his head, “It’ll take every bit of life energy you have…it’ll kill you…”

“But it will save our lanyunoka.” Aliz smiled warmly at the craggy, weather-beaten, handsome face of the older man she had fallen in love with. 

“But if you die…” Robert protested, “She’ll never be born in the first place.”

“Aliz doesn’t have to die.” Talana interjected, “Not if you join her. Remember…” She explained, “Both of you possess chroniton particles in your blood. Your quantum energy in combination with hers should…”

“Allow us to save our granddaughter!” Robert exclaimed with a smile on his face as he hugged the younger woman.

“I must point out…” Mr. Spock declared, adding a note of gloom to the happy scene, “…that repairing the rupture will cost each of you a substantial portion of your life energy. While Captain Shelby will probably emerge even healthier than when she threw herself into the vortex, you will lose years from your lives.”

“How many years?” Robert inquired.

“I cannot say for sure.” Mr. Spock answered back, “It could be a decade…or it could be more—much more.”

Looking up at her commanding officer, Aliz smiled, “I think it’s a fair exchange. What about you, Robert?”

“I’ve lived a good life.” Commodore Wesley declared, “I met and fell in love with a wonderful woman who gave me a daughter, and after our marriage fell apart, I had the good fortune to fall in love with another wonderful woman and I got the chance to meet my granddaughter and see what a good woman she grew up to be…even though she might be our wayward angel at times." His lips turned up in a crooked grin as he recalled certain images of his granddaughter indulging in a very hedonistic lifestyle thanks to a recent orb experience. He then gave Aliz a tender kiss on her lips, “Let’s go bring our granddaughter back.”

“There’s one universe where her quantum energy is particularly strong.” Talana noted as an image of a teenaged Elizabeth Shelby appeared walking hand-in-hand with an attractive platinum-blonde haired teenage girl down the hallway of what looked like a school. They watched as the pair talked with an auburn-haired teenage girl with glasses wearing a green jacket and black pleated skirt with laced boots and another dark-haired teenage girl dressed in a red jacket with black shorts and black tights.

“It looks like late twentieth—early twenty-first century Earth.” Commander Lavelle noted.

“An accurate deduction, Commander.” Mr. Spock noted. “I would surmise that her presence in this particular universe is acting as something of a keystone—shoring up the other universes.” He then addressed his next remarks to Commodore Wesley and Lieutenant Bathory. “I would recommend that we begin with the more unstable universes and then work towards this one, saving it for last.”

“How long will it take?” Aliz inquired as she took a deep breath.

“As far as we’re concerned…” Talana replied, giving her friend a warm grin, “It’ll only be a few minutes. Bur for her…” She pointed at the teenaged Elizaveta who was at that moment laughing merrily along with the platinum-blonde girl beside her at some joke the dark-haired girl had just told. “It might well be a few years. Time proceeds at a different rate in each universe.”

“Well…Robert?” Aliz asked pleadingly as her eyes fell to the image of her teenaged granddaughter.

“What do we have to do?” Commodore Wesley asked as he also stared at his granddaughter.

“I’ll have to open the orbs.” Lieutenant Sito answered back. “While I’m doing that, you’ll need to cut into the palms of your hands deep enough to draw blood with the dagger.”

“Once you do that…” Talana continued, “You’ll need to hold each other’s hands. That will allow the quantum energies in your blood to fuse together with the energies coming from the vortex. Then…all you have to do is walk into the vortex. You should be able to travel to each of the universes. Remember…” She cautioned, “You have to begin with the most unstable universes. Bring that particular fragment of Captain Shelby back and then go to the next one.”

“And this will only take a few minutes?” Robert exclaimed.

“That’s what it will appear to us as being.” The Andorian science officer nodded her head, “But, depending on the universe, that particular shard of the captain could have just appeared—or might have been there for decades. Each universe is different.”

Calling Lieutenant Bateson over to her, Aliz smiled at the handsome young Lexington helmsman, “Morgan…I need to ask a big favor of you before we go…”

“Anything, Aliz.” Morgan responded with an infectious grin as he regarded his friend.

“Promise me you’ll look after our lanyunoka when we’re gone…after we’ve passed on.” Aliz pleaded.

“I don’t understand, Aliz.” The handsome young lieutenant exclaimed, “Odds are I won’t be around when she’s born…I’m not sure what good my promise would be…”

“Just promise me, Morgan.” Aliz smiled knowingly. “Please. Look after our Elizaveta.”

“Of course, I will.” Lieutenant Bateson responded. “You have my promise.”

“Good enough for me.” Aliz smiled warmly as she turned to the commodore with an expectant look on her face.

“Ready, Aliz?” Robert smiled down at the petite Hungarian woman.

“Whenever you are, szereto.” Aliz smiled back.

Commodore Wesley then nodded to Lieutenant Sito as he picked up the dagger and cut into his palm before handing the blade to Aliz who did the same as the Bajoran security officer opened both of the orbs. “Let’s go get our Spitfire.”

Soon after they stepped into the vortex, a ghostly image, barely visible appeared laying on the altar. “That’s her!” Commander Lavelle exclaimed with an excited look on his face, “That’s Captain Shelby. But why can we barely see her?”

“As more and more of her shards are reincorporated.” Mr. Spock explained, “She will become more solid. When the final shard is incorporated back into the whole…” he declared as his eyes fell to the young blonde teenager now eating pizza in a restaurant with the platinum-blonde haired girl and another, dark-skinned, teenage couple, “…then she should reawaken.”

“And what will she remember from these other universes?” Lieutenant Bateson inquired.

“Unknown.” Mr. Spock replied, “She might vividly recall everything…or nothing. Although…if I were to hazard a conjecture, I would hypothesize that the stronger and more stable the universe, the more vivid her recollection would be.”

“That would mean…” Sam nodded his head in understanding as he gestured at the image of the teenagers eating pizza and laughing, “That she would probably recall most vividly what she’s experiencing in this universe.”

“A logical hypothesis.” Mr. Spock agreed as Lieutenant Bateson interjected.

“I wonder who’s that girl who’s always with the captain? Looks like they’re pretty close…”


End file.
